Jake’s birthday wish finally came true! A top-of-car chase! Whoohooo! …And then there was the sunroof.
Following that very unfortunate incident mid-pursuit (people need to learn to close their sunroofs when there’s a badass top-of-car chase in progress!),
Jake goes to see the doctor for the first time in 11 years and finds out he’s got some broken toes, ribs, and thumb. But even with his pimp/limp walk, Jake
refuses to give up the case while the perp is still out there. So Sarge lets him work the case from his desk, and of course he ends up pulling down a shelf
of files on top of himself. Even when he’s sent home Jake cannot give up the case, and tricks Boyle into helping him but pretending to go on a fun Atlantic
City trip -- which naturally turns out to be a stakeout in a crappy hotel. Sarge comes to bring Jake home, the perp comes to do business, and Jake ends up
getting hit by an ACPD car as he tries to pursuit the suspect. When he’s tied up in the hospital for his
extra injuries, Sarge counsels him to
take a rest, because people care about him. Jake explains the reason behind his foolish and relentless determination to close the case -- once he took a
vacation day in the middle of a case, and the perps were involved in a shoot-out that killed civilians. After Jake takes a week off (apparently fractures
can heal in about a week?), he decides to take a
real vacation weekend with Boyle to Atlantic City! Where they’ll be going on a taffy crawl? Oh
boy.
It’s been clear from the start that one of Jake’s strengths/weakness is that he never gives up. He has single-minded focus of a hound with a scent, and he
will not waver until he sees a case closed. This determination and relentless is why he’s such a good cop -- and also why he gets himself into trouble by
breaking the rules or trying to do more than he’s able. He interferes in cases he’s not supposed to (“Sabotage”), he disobeys orders due to his
well-intentioned stubbornness to close a case (“USPIS”), and he clearly can’t give up even when he’s mostly broken and therefore at a clear disadvantage.
It’s a true “hero” flaw that one cannot back down even when he or she is beat, even if it ultimately puts the hero in more danger or at a further
disadvantage. It’s great to see this type of episode that shows the flip-side, the dangerous side, to Jake’s dogged, and sometimes unthinking,
determination.
While Jake deals with his professional crisis, Rosa and Holt deal with a personal one, much to their chagrin. Since Rosa is dating Captain Holt’s nephew,
Marcus, it was inevitable that they would have to meet in a social situation, but both Rosa and Holt did their best to put it off. Unfortunately, Kevin
Cozner arranged for a dinner and neither could get out of it -- which meant it was time to employ non-harmful small talk. Aka, orchids. After the dinner
gets off to an uncomfortable start, it take a turn for the more uncomfortable (and personal), as Rosa reveals to Holt that she might be pregnant! Did
anyone see that coming? I was honestly so shocked for a second that I had to rewind and rewatch the scene. Of course, she’s
not pregnant, but the
whole experience brings Rosa and Holt closer together in a personal way, and they don’t mind it
so much.
While Jake’s story is a little more serious, some of the absolute
best moments of the episode come from this story. Holt’s reaction after Rosa
confides that she may be pregnant is perhaps the best Holt-reaction ever. Just the really slow, “Ohhhhh….ohhhh…noooooo,” made me laugh so hard, as the
Captain does quite a poor job of disguising his uncomfortableness in the situation. This is only matched by Rosa and Holt’s conversation back at the
precinct the next day where for some reason he cannot stop staring at her abdomen. Although Rosa’s relationship with Marcus is almost exclusively
off-screen, I fully support it if it can bring us more Rosa/Holt moments where they have to stew in the awkwardness of sharing their personal lives. “No
one needs to know that you have sisters!” -- so true, Holt, so true.
Off in C-story land, Amy and Gina are invited as buffers to the Rosa-Holt dinner party, which is of course the highlight of Amy’s year. And the highlight
of Gina’s too, as she gets to watch Amy try to play it cool when she’s
this close to freaking out. Not much happens to the pair on-screen aside
from the subway-murder of a smelly salad, but apparently after they show up to the dinner party (cancelled already due to a “non-emergency emergency”),
they get quite drunk and have an adventure. Somewhere along the way they end up buying sunglasses and a t-shirt for $200 from a bodega -- a scene I thought
would invite a flashback, but no such luck. It is kind of an odd, tiny story, shoved between the cracks of a more serious A-story and a hilariously
uncomfortable B-story, but it does leave me wondering what else happened that fateful night. Did Gina get to meet Seven Drink Amy? We’ll never really know…
What did you think about the episode? Do you think that Jake’s professional stubbornness will lead to more troubles in the future, or has he really learned
from the experience? What will happen if Rosa and Marcus ever get married? Will
all family dinners turn to lists of flower types? And what do
you think happened during Amy and Gina’s Drunken Adventure? Let us know below!
About the Author - Kimberly
Kimberly is a big TV nerd - willing to talk any show, any time. Her tastes are various and sundry, but she’s got a soft spot for comedy. She currently writes the SpoilerTV reviews for Parks and Recreation, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, and About a Boy.
